1.3 million people affected in flood-ravaged Peru, dengue cases growing

Nearly 1.3 million people in Peru remain severely affected or affected throughout the country as a result of the extreme rainfall and country's most devastating floods in decades. Of these, more than 400 000 are children and adolescents. At the same time, total dengue cases continue growing and have now overpassed 19 300.

According to a report prepared by the OCHA team in collaboration with the partners of the National Humanitarian Network (RHN), more than 31 000 people at national level continue living in temporary shelters. Some 47 000 houses at the national level have been destroyed, including collapsed and uninhabitable.

As of May 9, 109 provinces and 879 districts in 14 departments other than the Constitutional Province of Callao continued in a state of emergency. According to official figures provided by INDECI (Instituto Nacional de Defensa Civil - INDECI), at least 1 096 684 people are reported as affected and 196 140 as severely affected at the national level.

Credit: OCHA

To date, INDECI reports the following level of affectation in the most affected departments of the north:

The Piura region has registered the largest number of affected housing following the natural disaster caused by the presence of the Niño Costero, as per the latest INDECI report at the national level. The region has 383 076 people afected, which represents nearely 30% of all effected and severely affected. In total, that region presents 74 348 affected houses. Other departments showing a large number of affected housing include Lambayeque (31 446), Áncash (25 097), La Libertad (24 664), Ica (21 628), Loreto (17 252), Lima (12 782), Arequipa (11 687) and Tumbes (11 395).

In the Lambayeque region, the district of Mórrope has the largest quantity of severely affected with 7 376, followed by the district of Chiclayo with 6 250 severely affected, Jayanca with 5 950, José L. Ortíz with 5 626, and Túcume with 3 638. Meanwhile, the district of Oyotún in the province of Chiclayo concentrates the largest quantity of affected people, according to INDECI. As of May 3, this locality has 13 519 affected people, followed by the district of Jayanca with 13 231, Chongoyape with 10 981; Mórrope with 8 514; Nueva Arica with 6 450; Íllimo with 5 651 and Túcume with 5 509.

In the Tumbes region, the largest quantity of severely affected people by the rains is found in the district of Tumbes with 664, followed by La Cruz with 147, and Zarumilla with 85. In terms of affected people, the district of Pampas del Hospital reported 7 548 affected people, followed by the districts of Tumbes with 6 636; Matapalo with 5 400; La Cruz with 4 707 and Papayal with 3 086. Moreover, 42 houses collapsed by the rains, while most of the affected houses and educational institutions of the region are in the Pampas del Hospital district with 3 303 and 36, respectively.

Other than the north, Ica has been another region heavily affected by this emergency. The largest quantity of severely affected are in the districts San José de Los Molinos (1 695), La Tinguiña (636) and Alto Larán (338). Moreover, out of the 21 413 houses which were affected in this region, 3 540 belong to the district of Ica; 2 500 to the district of Santiago, and 2 110 to Palpa. The Ica district has 17 700 out of the 96 796 affected by the rains, followed by the districts of San José de Los Molinos with 10 150; Santiago with 9 750; Palpa with 8 428; Pueblo Nuevo with 4 500; Río Grande with 4 069; and Vista Alegre with 4 000, as per INDECI’s report of May 3.

In the Amazon, in relation to the recent increased flow in some of the main rivers, the National Emergency Operations Center (COEN) has alerted that SENAMHI has noted that the rivers Napo (Cuenca Napo), Amazonas (Cuenca Amazonas), and Marañón (Cuenca Bajo Marañón) remain in red alert despite having lowered their flows. Meanwhile, the Ucayali river alert (Bajo Ucayali), has been reduced to orange due to the reduction in its flow. In this regard, Loreto also includes a large number of people affected by the rivers overflowing, which to date run over 80 000 people.

435 000 people are food insecure in the departments of Piura, Lambayeque, La Libertad, Ancash and Tumbes. In these same areas, some 100 000 people would be in severe food insecurity.

2 391 educational institutions are affected and 250 are collapsed and uninhabitable throughout the country.

As of the same date, INDECI reports there are 819 health facilities affected, while 19 have collapsed and 36 are uninhabitable at the national level.

The increase in cases and mortality due to dengue in the region of Piura continues, as well as cases of Chikungunya and leptospirosis. 19 318 cases of dengue have been reported, including 3 probable cases in Lima Region. Piura and Ica are the regions that report the highest number of cases, and 262 cases are added in Metropolitan Lima, an area that does not correspond to the declaration of emergency.

Twenty-six deaths from dengue have been decreed, of which 16 (62%) correspond to the region of Piura. The Piura region also shows a significant increase in Chikungunya cases, which are steadily spreading to other districts in the region. Also, 1 222 cases of leptospirosis have been reported in 10 of the 11 regions declared in emergency by floods and rains. There is a trend towards a decrease in cases in the last week, and only the department of Piura has reported new cases.

Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral infection causing a severe flu-like illness and, sometimes causing a potentially lethal complication called severe dengue. According to the WHO, the incidence of dengue has increased 30-fold over the last 50 years. Up to 50 - 100 million infections are now estimated to occur annually in over 100 endemic countries, putting almost half of the world’s population at risk.

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